The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea plant, botanically known as Echinacea hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Post301’.
The new Echinacea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely flowering and relatively compact Echinacea plants with unique and attractive ray floret coloration.
The new Echinacea plant originated from a cross-pollination in June, 2012 in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands of a proprietary selection of Echinacea hybrida identified as code number 651-01, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with Echinacea hybrida ‘Purple Emperor’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,459, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Echinacea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands in July, 2014.
Asexual reproduction of the new Echinacea plant by in vitro meristem culture in a controlled environment in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands since December, 2014 has shown that the unique features of this new Echinacea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.